What type of damages can you claim by filing a medical malpractice lawsuit?
What type of damages can you claim by filing a medical malpractice lawsuit?
There are initially main economic damages such as all medical bills, and past and future lost earnings. Other economic damages can include loss of job or business opportunities, as well. Then there are non-economic damages such as past and future pain and suffering. The past indicates the period from the time you suffer the injury up to the trial. Future is indicative of period from trial into the foreseeable future, based upon the victim’s life expectancy.
It is easy to calculate a dollar amount for economic damages, from the bills and facts presented about the case. For non-economic damages, on the other hand, the jury will have to follow certain guidelines given by the judge after the trial, as there are no clear figures available to calculate these damages.
In a wrongful death case, the biggest component will be pain and suffering from the time of the wrongdoing until the death of the person. This period could be years, months, days, or even minutes or seconds. The other main component would be the financial loss suffered by the family, because of the person’s injury and death.
If the person were not an earning member of the family, then claiming financial loss due to lost earnings will not be possible. If the person had a spouse, then the spouse can claim loss of consortium. If the person had minor children, they can claim loss of guidance and other financial claims, if they were dependent on the person financially.
Medicare Lien
Anyone over the age of 65 will be most probably a beneficiary of Medicare. When a Medicare beneficiary files a medical malpractice case, then he or his attorney must notify Medicare. The victim must inform Medicare that he or she is filing a lawsuit seeking compensation for the wrong done by the doctor or the hospital. This is because Medicare has to be paid back for the medical expenses that they have incurred on the person.
If a Medicare beneficiary wins a medical malpractice lawsuit and does not inform Medicare after being dispersed some money, then Medicare can still claim their amount. The attorney who has fought on behalf of the Medicare beneficiary has an affirmative obligation to find out if his client has a lien. Secondly, Medicare since this is a federal agency, does not have to go to their beneficiary to recoup the money. They can go to the attorney or the law firm to claim their amount.
Being forthright pays
Therefore, all attorneys have an obligation to check if there is a Medicare lien, and whether Medicare has been paid for any of the bills associated with the improper care that the client has received. Secondly, if Medicare is not notified about the medical malpractice lawsuit, they can recover three times the amount that is owed to them via triple damages. Uncle Sam has a large appetite.
Therefore, it is no laughing matter to ignore Medicare. Some attorneys have made this mistake and have suffered financial losses along with their clients.
